this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2024
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:

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'Choose' rhymes with 'lose'? I mean c'mon, someone did that shit on purpose 👀

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[–] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 45 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (47 children)

The bigger problem is that lose should rhyme with pose or close. Loose is fine.

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 25 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Don't get me started on ough and ead.

The lead soldier kneaded dough in the bough brush while they read the book that they previously read while taking a furlough in the rough.

[–] xigoi@lemmy.sdf.org 10 points 10 months ago (2 children)
[–] tyler@programming.dev 4 points 10 months ago

Didn’t even have to click. Great poem

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[–] CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago

I read this and all I could think of was "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo"

[–] Silentiea@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

How can the soldier knead anything if they're made of lead?

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[–] Diddlydee@feddit.uk 26 points 10 months ago

They never did. Their spelling, meaning, and pronunciation are the same as they have always been.

[–] ohwhatfollyisman@lemmy.world 20 points 10 months ago (1 children)

they are very different in my mind. perhaps because i first came across them in their respective contexts through reading.

even when speaking, to me, lose rhymes with booze and loose rhymes with goose.

this has never been a problem for me, personally.

[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

And here's me, another non-native speaker, just learning that booze doesn't rhyme with goose.

[–] ohwhatfollyisman@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

oh, no, no, no! booze and a goose should never go together!

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[–] emeralddawn45@discuss.tchncs.de 18 points 10 months ago

I mean yeah 'loose' could probably be pronounced like 'choose' and it would still make sense, but it absolutely wouldnt make sense for 'lose' to be pronounced like 'moose' or 'goose'. Im not sure what you even mean when you say they switched meanings either because thats just false.

[–] NorthWestWind@lemmy.world 16 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (4 children)

May as well combine words with the same pronunciation into one word and call it Simplified English (/s)

Honestly tho, this is one of the features of Simplified Chinese, which created the infamous "fuck vegetables" (干菜类).

It's meant to say "dried vegetables" (乾菜類 in TC), but 乾→干. Meanwhile, there exists 幹→干 as well, which means "fuck".

fuck vegetables

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[–] jimmy90@lemmy.world 16 points 10 months ago

english is a very silly language that's evolved so you can do almost anything with it

it's a risky strat but it seems to have worked

[–] db2@lemmy.world 13 points 10 months ago

They didn't, except among the ignorant and autocorrect.

[–] vaper@lemmy.world 13 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (5 children)

Loose rhymes with noose. I can't think of a word that's spelled and pronounced like lose so you have me there.

choose lose cruise booze

all rhyme lol

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[–] cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 10 points 10 months ago (6 children)

It's a miracle I know it, and having to teach someone how to read and spell was an eye opener for me trying to explain "this is like this except for this one word because... Reasons and sometimes there's a variation like this because...reasons" so many times.

[–] absGeekNZ@lemmy.nz 8 points 10 months ago

Agreed, I am teaching my second son to read.

I am having the same conversations as when I taught my first to read.

"ok, this word is a 'sight word' because it doesn't make the sounds you expect. It says won, but it looks like it says on-e"

[–] Silentiea@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 10 months ago

Mostly the "reasons" just boil down to etymology. We spell things the way the languages we stole them from spelled them.

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[–] can@sh.itjust.works 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

What about the words that are only different in tone.

Content and content

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It is read like lead, not read like lead.

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[–] Aeao@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago

Read rhymes with lead, and read rhymes with lead, but lead doesn't rhyme with read and lead doesn't rhyme with read.

[–] corvett@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)
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[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Wait, if they swapped meanings and then swapped spellings then doesn't that mean they're the same as before?

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[–] Jerb322@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago

Trust me, it is equally frustrating for most Americans...or almost, anyway.

[–] over_clox@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

There's ~~too~~ ~~to~~ two different ways to pronounce and spell many words.

Fuck, that's three!

[–] Noel_Skum@sh.itjust.works 6 points 10 months ago (7 children)

Are you familiar with “The Chaos” by Gerard Nolst Trenité?

Deep breath:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chaos

[–] Coelacanth@feddit.nu 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I believe the generally accepted scientific term for the English language is "clusterfuck".

[–] Noel_Skum@sh.itjust.works 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)
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[–] Revan343@lemmy.ca 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

If we start now, we can probably switch the pronunciations of Aristotle and chipotle within a generation.

Chip-ot-el

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[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 5 points 10 months ago

Okay TIL that these aren't pronounced the same.

[–] scarabic@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

English is idiosyncratic as hell. Didn’t someone famous call it “not a language but 3 languages in an overcoat.”

Adding to this specific instance is that even native speakers spell things wrong. They loose their keys, etc.

[–] Here4CatPics@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

It's a lose/loose situation

[–] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 3 points 10 months ago

Obviously the plural of foot is feet, so the plural of book should be beek.

Or one sheep should be a shoop.

There's also the English Vowel Shift. Which means words either side of it are inconsistent.

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